Published August 31, 2015 at 5:21 PM Updated September 1, 2015 at 5:27 PM

Think of all the time and money we spend buying food, cooking food, going to restaurants, and of course eating. What if that vanished from our lives and we had all that time and energy and at least some of the money back?

That is the idea behind Soylent. It’s a whole meal replacement drink people can mix up from a powder that, according to the manufacturer, gives the user “all the essential nutrients required to fuel the human body.”

Sounds kooky, but Soylent has developed a serious following since a small group of entrepreneurs in California dreamed it up in 2013. The company has so far sold about 6.5 million servings of Soylent and attracted about $25 million in venture capital.

The demand is so high that I was on a waiting list for about year before I could buy a week’s supply of the drink. I paid $70 for seven 460 gram (16.2 ounches) pouches of Soylent. The order came with a pitcher and metal scoop for preparing the mixture.

I have decided to drink just Soylent for the rest of the work week. As the week goes on I’ll post updates on how my little experiment is going plus more on the nutritional issues around Soylent, where the company may be heading and whether I can survive without bacon.

My one cheat will be coffee with cream, because I don’t want to go crazy.

I mixed up my first batch for lunch today. It doesn’t really taste like anything. Vaguely like flour. I’m already eyeing my co-worker’s roast beef sandwich. This could be a long week.

Send me any questions at Jim.Spellman@cgtnamerica.com and I’ll try to answer them.

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When did you buy this stuff? No one buying this year has had to wait a long time to get it. Typical time is about a week. What version did you get? Current is 1.5, though 2.0 has been announced.

Jim Spellman

I have version
1.5. I got on the waiting list in May or June of 2014 ( when a week’s supply of
Soylent 1.0 was going for $170 on eBay!) and I got an email from the company on
June 23rd saying I could order and get it shipped.
Have you been drinking/eating Soylent? How has it been for you?

geneven

I’ve been drinking Soylent for almost 100% of my food for about nine months, at first with real food snacks every few days. Recently I became more stringent and went 34 days on nothing but Soylent, stopped for 10 days, and now I’ve gone 38 days on Soylent with no snacks.

I have diabetes 2 and other ailments and my health is continually improving.

Outside of good health, I don’t have any spectacular reports of effects, just a feeling that I am consuming good nutrition. The price of Soylent just dropped, and as a retiree that is important to me. I love receiving my food shipped rather than shopping for it. I like Soylent more and more as time passes. I don’t miss regular food, but anytime I want a hamburger or something, I can have one. In a few days I’m going to visit a friend out of town, and I will probably stop consuming Soylent to take advantage of her great cooking.